Sri: time to evangelize

Edward Sri stands direct in his challenge to Catholics – go deeper in the Faith, even if they think they’re already there.

Sri, a speaker, theologian, author and co-founding leader of FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students), presents to tens of thousands of people around the world each year, including clergy, parish leaders, catechists and laity.

He’s a keynote speaker for the 2024 Discipleship Conference, scheduled for Aug. 10 at the Oklahoma City Convention Center. Registration is open, with tickets available at okdisciple.org/register-here.

The Sooner Catholic reached out to Sri for a short Q&A to preview of what to expect from his presentation.

Q: What is the focus of your talk, and why do you feel this is a message for this time in our faith in America?

My main talk, my keynote, is going to be on my newest book which just came out. It’s titled “What Do You Seek? Encountering the Heart of the Gospel.”

We’re living in a non-Christian age. This is an apostolic age. It’s our apostolic mission to go out into the culture that is no longer Christian, a culture that maybe has some vague familiarity with Catholicism and the Bible or Jesus, but has really lost its Christian roots.

In this period, the Church is calling us to evangelize. Most of us don’t know that core Gospel message that Peter, Paul, John the Apostle, those early Church Fathers were proclaiming around ancient Rome. And I wanted to write a book that made that basic core message of our faith easy to understand, but more importantly, to penetrate our own hearts.

So this book is a reflection on the kerygma, that core Gospel message, the story of God’s love, that helps us interiorize the Gospel message many of us Catholics may know. There’s a God. He created us. He died for us. And he gave us the Church.

But most of us don’t live day to day with the profound realization of that amazing love that’s behind everything we believe. Many Catholics know the many basic facts about the faith. They know there are 12 apostles, 10 commandments, seven sacraments, three persons of the Trinity. But they don’t really know God personally as the one friendship that makes all the difference in everything they do in their lives.

This book is meant to unpack that beautiful relationship that God is calling us to, through a fresh proclamation of the Gospel, so we can encounter Jesus anew.

Q: We are all called to be disciples. And to go make disciples. What does that look like for "ordinary" Catholics?

For the ordinary Catholic, we’re all called to follow Jesus as his disciples. That means not simply that we believe the right things, say the right prayers, follow the right moral principles – and of course, we have to do all that, it’s essential. But at the heart of being Catholic is to actually follow Jesus, follow him day to day in our lives, not just to make him a part of our lives, but the very center of our lives.

Many Catholics have Jesus as a part of their lives, maybe even a very important part of their lives. They go to Mass on Sunday. They volunteer at their parish. They put money in the basket. They even participate in a small group, maybe. But, is Jesus really at the very center of our lives? Is he truly the No. 1 thing in our lives? Do we seek him, and his will for our lives, seeking him first? Do I find my main happiness, my main fulfillment, my identity, my security in him alone?

Because if I’m not seeking him first, that means I’m making an idol out of something else in my life, whether it be my career, whether it be the dreams I have for my kids, my reputation, my presence on social media, my making money, making something else more important than God. 

I want to invite everyone who comes to the conference to examine their own hearts and ask how is Jesus inviting you to put him at the very center, to be not just the No. 2, the No. 3, the No. 4 thing in your life, but truly No. 1? What would your life look like? How would your life look differently if Jesus were at the very heart of your life.


Q: What moved you to write your latest book, “What Do You Seek? Encountering the Heart of the Gospel.”

The Church is calling on us to evangelize. And many of us have friends or family members who we love who maybe are away from the Church, who have never really encountered God in their life, Jesus Christ, the fullness of the Catholic faith. How do we evangelize them? How do we reach out to them?

We can’t just share with them the catechism. Or, here are 10 truths about the Catholic faith. We want to proclaim what those early apostles proclaimed, because that’s what changed the world, changed a pagan Roman culture into a Christian society. How can we do that again in our world today? Well, we need to know the Gospel. Many Catholics don’t know the Gospel. So I wrote this book to be a reflection on that Gospel message.

John Helsley is editor of the Sooner Catholic.